Category: Birthdays

… of Mike Wallace; 89 today. 60 Minutes is the only place where the average age is higher than that of the College of Cardinals.

… of Glenda Jackson; 71 today. Ms. Jackson has four Oscar nominations, two of them winners for best actress — Women In Love and A Touch of Class.

… of Albert Finney; he’s 71 as well. Finney has been nominated for an Oscar five times, but no wins.

… of Sonny Curtis; 70 today. Curtis started out with Buddy Holly but earned fame as a songwriter — I Fought the Law and the Law Won. It’s Curtis who wrote — and who sang — Love Is All Around. You know, the theme song from “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.”

Who can turn the world on with her smile?
Who can take a nothing day, and suddenly make it all seem worthwhile?
Well it’s you girl, and you should know it
With each glance and every little movement you show it

Love is all around, no need to fake it.
You can have the town, why don’t you take it.
You’re gonna make it after all

… of James L. Brooks; he’s 67. Brooks won Oscars for Best Picture, Director and Screenplay for Terms of Endearment. He received nominations in various categories for Broadcast News, Jerry Maguire and As Good as It Gets, too. For my money, I like his work as executive producer of Mary Tyler Moore and, of course, The Simpsons.

… of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Richie Furay; 63 today. Furay, Dewey Martin, Bruce Palmer, Stephen Stills and Neil Young were the founders of Buffalo Springfield.

There’s something happening here
What it is ain’t exactly clear
There’s a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to beware
I think it’s time we stop, children, what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down

… of Candace Bergen; she’s 61. Ms. Bergen was nominated for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 1980 for Starting Over.

… of Billy Joel; 58 today. If you need a couple notes of Billy Joel, click here.

… of Kermit (yeah, that Kermit). He’s 52 today. Maybe it is easy being green. The original Kermit was made from a coat belonging to Jim Henson’s mother.

John Brown was born on May 9th in 1800. The American Experience has a good biographical essay on Brown.

He has been called a saint, a fanatic, and a cold-blooded murderer. The debate over his memory, his motives, about the true nature of the man, continues to stir passionate debate. It is said that John Brown was the spark that started the Civil War. Truly, he marked the end of compromise over the issue of slavery, and it was not long after his death that John Brown’s war became the nation’s war.

J. M. (James Matthew) Barrie was born in Scotland on May 9th in 1860. His Peter Pan first appeared in 1902 in a book of children’s stories, The Little White Bird. In 1904 Barrie produced the play “Peter Pan, the Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up.”

And on May 9th, 1950:

A fire crew fighting the Capitan Gap fire in Lincoln National Forest rescues a bear cub clinging to a tree. The burned animal later became known as Smokey Bear and the cub grew into a national symbol for the prevention of forest fires. The bear lived on and later died of natural causes and his body was returned from Washington, D.C., to be buried in the same area of the Lincoln fire.

New Mexico Magazine

… of Don Rickles, 81 today.

… of Toni Tennille, 67 today. (The Captain, Daryl Dragon, is 64.)

… of Bill Cowher. The former Steelers coach is 50.

… of Ronnie Lott. The Football Hall of Famer is 48.

… of Melissa Gilbert, 43. Yup, “Half Pint” from The Little House on the Prairie. She was 10 when the show began. Ms. Gilbert was President of the Screen Actors Guild 2001-2005. (Past presidents include Ronald Reagan, Charlton Heston, Ed Asner and Patty Duke). Ms. Gilbert was the youngest person ever to receive a star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She dated Tom Cruise and had a relationship with Rob Lowe. She is married to Bruce Boxleitner. They have a son and Ms. Gilbert has another son from her marriage to Bo Brinkman.

Eric Hilliard Nelson would have been 67 today. (He died in a plane crash on New Year’s Eve 1985.)

Ricky Nelson was a teen idol who had something more than good looks going for him – namely, talent. On television, he acted out his real-life role as the son of Ozzie and Harriet Nelson in the Fifties. As a rock-and-rolling teenager on The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet, he practically grew up in the nation’s living rooms. In the recording studio, having landed a contract based on his TV stardom, he more than made the grade. No mere rock and roll pretender, Nelson was the real thing: a gentle-voiced singer/guitarist with an instinctive feel for the country-rooted side of rockabilly. And he had exquisite taste in musicians, utilizing guitarist James Burton (formerly a Dale Hawkins sideman, later an Elvis Presley accompanist) as his secret weapon in the studio.

Nelson’s first single – “A Teenager’s Romance” b/w “I’m Walkin’,” the latter a Fats Domino song – made the Top Ten shortly after its release in April 1957. He was sixteen years old at the time. The next year, he reached #1 with “Poor Little Fool” (which was written by Sharon Sheeley, who was Eddie Cochran’s girlfriend). His discerning taste in material – a rare talent in one so young – also led him to “Hello Mary Lou” (his signature song) and “Travelin’ Man,” both of which topped the charts. All totaled, Nelson scored an incredible 33 Top Forty hits in a seven-year period.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Robert Johnson was born on May 8th in 1911.

Though he recorded only 29 songs in his brief career – 22 of which appeared on 78 rpm singles released on the Vocalion label, including his first and most popular, “Terraplane Blues” – Johnson nonetheless altered the course of American music. In the words of biographer Stephen C. LaVere, “Robert Johnson is the most influential bluesman of all time and the person most responsible for the shape popular music has taken in the last five decades.” Such classics as “Cross Road Blues,” “Love In Vain” and “Sweet Home Chicago” are the bedrock upon which modern blues and rock and roll were built.

Or, as Eric Clapton put it in the liner notes to the Johnson boxed-set, “Robert Johnson to me is the most important blues musician who ever lived….I have never found anything more deeply soulful than Robert Johnson. His music remains the most powerful cry that I think you can find in the human voice, really.”

The very first Coca-Cola was sold at Jacob’s Pharmacy in Atlanta on this date in 1886. Dr. John S. Pemberton created the formula, which until 1905 had extracts of cocaine, as well as caffeine-rich kola nut. Bookkeeper Frank Robinson coined the name and it’s his handwriting we know from the trademark.

And, today is the birthday of Jill, official oldest daughter of NewMexiKen and frequent contributor to these pages. Happy Birthday Jilly!

U.S. Senator Pete Domenici (R-Losing His Marbles) is 75 today.

Tim Russert is 57.

Steve Arroyo is 37.

Johannes Brahms and Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky were born on May 7th in 1833 and 1840 respectively.

Poet, playwright and Librarian of Congress Archibald MacLeish was born on May 7th in 1892.

Gary Cooper was born on May 7th in 1901. Copper twice won the best actor Oscar and had three more nominations in the category. His wins were for Sergeant York and High Noon.

Edwin Herbert Land was born on May 7th in 1909. Land invented the Polaroid Land Camera.

And Eva Peron was born on May 7th in 1919.

NewMexiKen is backing off doing the birthdays every day, but I must do them today.

Willie Mays is 76, Bob Seger is 62, Tony Blair is 54 and George Clooney is 46.

Orson Welles was born on May 6 in 1915, as was journalist-historian Theodore H. White (The Making of the President).

Rudolph Valentino was born on May 6 in 1895.

The founder of the Bank of America and hero of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake recovery, Amadeo Peter Giannini was born on May 6 in 1870.

And, as noted a few posts back, Sigmund Freud was born on May 6 in 1856. The Writers Almanac has an interesting brief profile.

Ken, official oldest child of NewMexiKen, celebrates his birthday today at Disneyland. Happy Birthday Ken!

I dreamt it was Sigmund Freud’s birthday. How would you interpret that?

(Freud was born on this date in 1856.)

In honor of James Brown, born on this date in 1933, the only thing to say is this.

… of Jerry Seinfeld. He’s 53.

… of three-time Oscar nominee, one-time winner Daniel Day-Lewis. He’s 50. Lewis won for My Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown.

… of three-time Oscar nominee Michelle Pfeiffer. She’s 49. Once upon a time, before she gave it all up to go to Hollywood, Michelle was a checker at our local Von’s supermarket.

… of Jan Brady. Eve Plumb is 49.

… of one-time Oscar nominee (Pulp Fiction) Uma Thurman. She’s 37.

… of Andre Agassi, 37.

Edward Kennedy Ellington, that is, Duke Ellington, was born in Washington, D.C., on this date in 1899. The PBS web site for JAZZ A Film By Ken Burns sums up Ellington succinctly.

Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington was the most prolific composer of the twentieth century in terms of both number of compositions and variety of forms. His development was one of the most spectacular in the history of music, underscored by more than fifty years of sustained achievement as an artist and an entertainer. He is considered by many to be America’s greatest composer, bandleader, and recording artist.

The extent of Ellington’s innovations helped to redefine the various forms in which he worked. He synthesized many of the elements of American music — the minstrel song, ragtime, Tin Pan Alley tunes, the blues, and American appropriations of the European music tradition — into a consistent style with which, though technically complex, has a directness and a simplicity of expression largely absent from the purported art music of the twentieth century. Ellington’s first great achievements came in the three-minute song form, and he later wrote music for all kinds of settings: the ballroom, the comedy stage, the nightclub, the movie house, the theater, the concert hall, and the cathedral. His blues writing resulted in new conceptions of form, harmony, and melody, and he became the master of the romantic ballad and created numerous works that featured the great soloists in his jazz orchestra.

The Red Hot Jazz Archive has a number of Ellington recordings on line [RealAudio files].

And William Randolph Hearst was born on this date in 1863. Many think we know Hearst because we know Charles Foster Kane. Was Hearst the model for Charles Foster Kane? Read what Orson Welles had to say in 1975 (first posted by NewMexiKen three years ago).

… of Harper Lee. The author of one the great classics of American literature, To Kill A Mockingbird, is 81. Miss Lee has remained so private so long that the only mental image of her I have is actually an image of Catherine Keener from Capote.

Mockingbird, published in 1960, has sold more than 30 million copies.

“Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”

The Writer’s Almanac had a nice essay about Lee last year (it includes the quotation above). There was another slightly longer variation of it two years ago that NewMexiKen replicated.

… of James A. Baker III. The former Secretary of State is 77. NewMexiKen met Baker in 1993 during the last week of the first Bush Administration. He was the President’s chief of staff, so the meeting took place in the West Wing (one of two times I’ve been there on business). Never have I met an individual more impressive in a small meeting than Baker. When you spoke, Baker gave you his apparent undivided attention. Baker’s place in history will be enhanced I believe by his diplomatic work in forming the international coalition before the 1991 invasion of Iraq. His place in history will be diminished I believe by his work for the second Bush in the 2000 Florida election litigation.

… of Ann-Margret, 66.

… of Jay Leno. He’s 57.

… of golfer John Daly. He’s 41.

… of former ADA Serena Southerlyn. Elisabeth Röhm is 34.

… of Penélope Cruz Sánchez. Winner of several best actress awards in Europe for Non ti muovere, the Oscar-nominee is 33.

… of Jessica Alba. She’s 26.

Carolyn Jones was born on this date in 1929. The one-time Oscar nominee has nearly 100 credits to her name despite dying of colon cancer at age 54. She was, of course, Morticia Addams in the classic TV show.

Lionel Herbert Blythe was born on this date in 1878. We know him as Lionel Barrymore — and we know him even better as Mr. Potter in It’s A Wonderful Life — “I’d say you were nothing but a scurvy little spider.” Barrymore won the Oscar for best actor in 1931 for A Free Soul. The previous year he was nominated for best director. Both of Barrymore’s parents were actors, as were his sister Ethel (an Oscar winner) and brother John.

And James Monroe, the fifth U.S. President, was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, on this date in 1758. He is one of three presidents (and two NewMexiKen daughters) to attend the College of William and Mary.

Saddam Hussein was born on this date in 1937, but no more Mr. Nice Guy.

. . . of Carol Burnett, 74, Duane Eddy, 69, and Bobby Rydell, 65.

Egbert Roscoe Murrow was born on this date in 1908. He died in 1965.

A Murrow radio report from a bombing raid over Berlin (he made 25 bombing runs):

The clouds were gone and the sticks of incendiaries from the preceding waves made the place look like a badly laid out city with the streetlights on. The small incendiaries were going down like a fistful of white rice thrown on a piece of black velvet. As Jock hauled the Dog up again, I was thrown to the other side of the cockpit, and there below were more incendiaries, glowing white and then turning red. The cookies—the four-thousand-pound high explosives—were bursting below like great sunflowers gone mad. And then, as we started down again, still held in the lights, I remembered the Dog still had one of those cookies and a whole basket of incendiaries in its belly, and the lights still held us. And I was very frightened.

The above from a fine article last year by Nicholas Lehmann in The New Yorker.

Ella Fitzgerald was born in Newport News, Virginia, on this date in 1918. Scott Yanow’s essay for the All Music Guide is first rate. It begins:

“The First Lady of Song,” Ella Fitzgerald was arguably the finest female jazz singer of all time (although some may vote for Sarah Vaughan or Billie Holiday). Blessed with a beautiful voice and a wide range, Fitzgerald could outswing anyone, was a brilliant scat singer, and had near-perfect elocution; one could always understand the words she sang. The one fault was that, since she always sounded so happy to be singing, Fitzgerald did not always dig below the surface of the lyrics she interpreted and she even made a downbeat song such as “Love for Sale” sound joyous. However, when one evaluates her career on a whole, there is simply no one else in her class.

There are many great Fitzgerald CDs but an excellent, inexpensive place to start is The Best of the Song Books.

Albert Nelson was born on this date in 1923 (he died in 1992). We know him as Albert King.

Albert King is truly a “King of the Blues,” although he doesn’t hold that title (B.B. does). Along with B.B. and Freddie King, Albert King is one of the major influences on blues and rock guitar players. Without him, modern guitar music would not sound as it does — his style has influenced both black and white blues players from Otis Rush and Robert Cray to Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan. It’s important to note that while almost all modern blues guitarists seldom play for long without falling into a B.B. King guitar cliché, Albert King never does — he’s had his own style and unique tone from the beginning.

Albert King plays guitar left-handed, without re-stringing the guitar from the right-handed setup; this “upside-down” playing accounts for his difference in tone, since he pulls down on the same strings that most players push up on when bending the blues notes. King’s massive tone and totally unique way of squeezing bends out of a guitar string has had a major impact. (All Music)

… of Jerry Leiber. He’s 74. Leiber and partner Mike Stoller are in the Rock and Roll and Songwriters halls of fame.

By the time they were 20, in just three years of working together, their early songs had been recorded by a collection of true all-stars in the rhythm and blues genre including Jimmy Witherspoon, Little Esther, Amos Milburn, Charles Brown, Little Willie Littlefield, Bull Moose Jackson, Linda Hopkins, Ray Charles and Willie Mae (Big Mama) Thornton who actually first recorded “Hound Dog” in 1952. Atlantic Records executives, Ahmet Ertegun and Jerry Wexler among them, were impressed, and in 1955 signed Leiber and Stoller to the first independent production deal, forever changing the course of production in the record industry.

For the next decade, well into the late ’60s the hits of Leiber and Stoller were constantly at the top of the charts, including the memorable “Stand By Me,” “Spanish Harlem” and “I (Who Have Nothing),” by Ben E. King; “On Broadway,” “Dance With Me” and “Drip Drop” by The Drifters; LaVern Baker’s “Saved” and Ruth Brown’s “Lucky Lips.”

During this same productive period, there were other Leiber and Stoller smashes, including “Love Potion #9,” by The Clovers, “Only In America” by Jay and The Americans, “I Keep Forgettin,” by Chuck Jackson, Wilbert Harrison’s “Kansas City,” The Drifters’ “There Goes My Baby” and “Fools Fall In Love,” “Black Denim Trousers and Motorcycle Boots” by The Cheers and “Ruby Baby” by Dion DiMucci. [And virtually everything by The Coasters.]

Following the triumph of “Hound Dog,” Elvis Presley actually went on to record more than 20 Leiber and Stoller songs, including such highlights as “Loving You,” “Bossa Nova Baby,” “She’s Not You” and “Santa Claus Is Back In Town.” [And “Jailhouse Rock.”]

The true diversity of the pairs of talent came into full bloom with the genre-bending song “Is That All There Is,” recorded by (Miss) Peggy Lee in 1969, which prompted music critic Bob Palmer’s comment, “the golden age of rock and roll has come to an end.”

Songwriters Hall of Fame

… of Al Pacino. The 8-time Oscar nominee is 67. He won for Scent of a Woman, but not for The Godfather or Godfather II. Pacino was nominated for a supporting actor Oscar for the first Godfather, which seems odd until one remembers that Caan and Duvall were also nominated for supporting and Brando won for lead.

… of another Godfather cast member Talia Shire. She’s 61 today. Connie Corleone-Rizzi in the Godfather movies, Miss Shire was Adrian in the Rocky films. She was nominated for the best supporting actress Oscar for Godfather II (1974) and for the best actress Oscar for Rocky (1976). Talia Shire’s actual name is Talia Rose Coppola. She is the sister of director Francis Ford Coppola, which makes her the aunt of Sofia Coppola (daughter of Francis Coppola) and the aunt of Nicolas Cage (son of another Coppola brother).

… of Agador Spartacus. He’s 43 today. So are Moe Szyslak, Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, Chief Wiggum, Professor Frink, Comic Book Guy and Dr. Nick Riviera. All are played by the multi-talented Hank Azaria, who was born on this date in 1964. Agador Spartacus is the Guatemalan houseboy in The Birdcage. Azaria appeared on Friends six times and 13 times on Mad About You.

… of Renee Zellweger, 38. Twice nominated for best actress, Miss Zellweger won the Oscar for a supporting role in Cold Mountain (without her that film would have died of its own weight). She was born in Katy, Texas, but her parents were born in Switzerland and Norway.

… of Earl Hickey. Earl’s name isn’t Earl at all, it’s Jason Lee and he’s 37 today.

… of Tim Duncan. He’s 31.

. . . of Shirley MacLaine and Barbra Streisand, 73 and 65 respectively.

MacLaine has five best actress Oscar nominations, winning for Terms of Endearment. Streisand has two best actress Oscar nominations, winning for Funny Girl (a tie that year with Hepburn). Streisand also won an Oscar for best song for “A Star Is Born.”

The Library of Congress was established by legislation signed on this date in 1800.

… of Shirley Temple Black. The actress turned diplomat is 79. Shirley Temple was in approximately 50 films before she turned 18. She received a special juvenile Oscar in 1935.

… of Lee Majors. He’s 68. Soon the $6-million man will be found on eBay for $11.95.

… of Michael Moore, 53.

… of Judy Davis. The two-time Oscar nominee is 52.

… of Valerie Bertinelli. Once Barbara Cooper on One Day at a Time (1975-1984), she’s 47 and divorced from Eddie Van Halen.

… of George Lopez. He’s 46.

… of Melina Kanakaredes, 40.

It was on the date in 1791 that James Buchanan, the former worst president ever of the U.S., was born.

Stephen A. Douglas, the short guy who debated Lincoln during the 1858 election—and won the election, was born on this date in 1813. Douglas died shortly after Lincoln’s inaugural as president in 1861.

And April 23, 1564, is generally accepted as the birth date of William Shakespeare.

. . . of Elizabeth R. She’s 81. (R for Regina, i.e., Queen.) Her name is Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor.

. . . of Elaine May, 75.

. . . of Charles Grodin, 72.

. . . of Iggy Pop, 60.

. . . of Tony Danza, 56.

. . . of Andie MacDowell, 49.

Charlotte Bronte was born on this date in 1816.

John Muir was born on this date in 1838.

. . .is 48 today.

Clint Howard is credited with more than 170 films and television programs including roles in many of his brother’s films — Cocoon, Apollo 13 and Cinderella Man come to mind. Many will remember Clint as the 8-year-old kid in the TV series Gentle Ben. Howard was also the voice of Roo in the Disney Winnie the Pooh films, and more recently the voice of the balloon man in Curious George.

The Howard brothers: Ron (right) and Ron’s brother

Photo from The Clint Howard Show

See NewMexiKen’s special Ron Howard’s Brother page.

. . . of Justice John Paul Stevens, 87 today. He went on the Court in 1975.

. . . of Mr. Sulu. That’s actor George Takei of Star Trek. He’s 70.

. . . of Ryan O’Neal, nominated for best actor for Love Story, but never again. He’s 66.

. . . of Coach Steve Spurrier, 62.

. . . of Andrew Tobias. He’s 60.

. . . of six-time Oscar nominee and two-time winner Jessica Lange. Lange won best supporting actress for Tootsie and best actress for Blue Sky. She’s 58.

. . . of Ron Howard’s brother, 48. (See separate entry.)

. . . of Carmen Electra, 35.

Daniel Chester French was born on this date in 1850.

French studied in Boston and New York prior to receiving his first commission for the 1875 statue The Minute Man. Standing near the North Bridge in Concord, in the Minute Man National Historical Park, this work commemorates events at the North Bridge, the site of “the shot heard ’round the world”. An American icon, images derivative of The Minute Man statue appeared on defense bonds, stamps, and posters during World War II.

With the success of The Minute Man came opportunities to study abroad. After a year in Italy, French opened a studio in Washington, D.C. Additional trips to Europe and a friendship with fellow sculptor Augustus Saint Gaudens resulted in more ambitious work beginning with the impressive General Lewis Cass executed for the U.S. Capitol in 1888.

By the turn of the century, French was America’s preeminent monumental sculptor. The Angel of Death Staying the Hand of the Sculptor, created for Boston’s Forest Hills Cemetery; John Harvard, located at Harvard University; and a standing Abraham Lincoln at the west entrance to the Nebraska State Capitol are a few of the important monuments French produced during a long and productive career.

Library of Congress

Adolph Hitler was born on this date in 1889.

Harold Lloyd was born on this date in 1893.

“The King of Daredevil Comedy,” Harold Lloyd is best remembered today as the young man dangling desperately from a clock tower in the 1923 classic Safety Last. At the height of his career, Lloyd was one of the most popular and highest-paid stars of his time. While his achievements have been overshadowed by the work of contemporaries Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, he made more films than the two of them combined. With hits like his 1922 film Grandma’s Boy, Lloyd became a strong force in bringing about the advent of the “feature-length” film.

American Masters

Lionel Hampton was born on this date in 1908.

Hampton was not the first jazz musician to take up vibraphone (Red Norvo had preceded him in the late 1920s), but it was he who gave the instrument an identity in jazz, applying a wide range of attacks and generating remarkable swing on an instrument otherwise known for its bland, disembodied sound. Undoubtedly his best work was done with the Goodman Quartet from 1936-1940, when he revealed a fine ear for small-ensemble improvisation and an unrestrained, ebullient manner as a soloist. The big band format was probably better suited to the display of his flamboyant personality and flair for showmanship, but after a few early successes, especially the riff tunes Flying Home, Down Home Jump, and Hey Bab-Ba-Rebop, the group was too often content to repeat former triumphs for its many admirers. Hampton has at times also appeared as a singer, played drums with enormous vitality, and performed with curious success as a pianist, using only two fingers in the manner of vibraphone mallets.

PBS – JAZZ A Film By Ken Burns

Luther Vandross was born on this date in 1951. His album Never Too Much is one of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s Definitive 200 (albums that every music lover should own).

. . . of TV’s Wyatt Earp. Hugh O’Brian is 82.

. . . of Elinor Donahue. Donahue has nearly 100 credits listed at IMDB, but foremost she was the oldest daughter on famed 1950s sitcom “Father Knows Best.” Betty “Princess” Anderson is 70.

. . . of Ashley Judd, 39.

. . . of Oscar-nominee (2001) Kate Hudson. More than almost famous at 28.

. . . of Oscar-nominee (2005) Catalina Sardino Moreno. She’s full of grace at 26.

. . . of Maria Sharapova, 20.

Ole Evinrude was born on this date in 1877. Guess what he invented.

Eliot Ness was born on this date in 1903.

Ever since Eliot Ness first published The Untouchables in 1957, the public has fallen in love with the adventures of this authentic American hero. His book was a runaway best seller because it was the exciting true story of a brave and honest lawman pitted against the country’s most successful gangster, Al Capone. The television series that followed in the 1950’s and the Kevin Costner movie in 1987 built fancifully on the same theme.

The Crime Library

Vera Jayne Palmer was born on this date in 1933. We know her as Jayne Mansfield.

Grace Kelly became Her Serene Highness Princess Grace on this date in 1956.

By 1956, Grace Kelly was calling it quits after a movie-acting career of only five years—but what a career it was. Her 11 films included the 1952 classic High Noon, the 1956 musical High Society, and the Alfred Hitchcock-directed masterpieces Dial M for Murder, Rear Window, and To Catch a Thief. She had won an Oscar for her role in 1954’s The Country Girl—and all this before her twenty-seventh birthday.

American Heritage.

. . . of Della Street. That’s Barbara Hale who played Della on 155 episodes of Perry Mason. She’s 85.

. . . of Pollyanna. Hayley Mills is 61.

. . . of two-time Oscar nominee James Woods. He’s 60.

. . . of Rick Moranis, 54.

. . . of Daphne Moon. Jane Leeves of “Frasier” is 46.

. . . of Conan O’Brien. He’s 44.

. . . of America Ferrera; she’s 23.

The first game was played at Yankee Stadium on this date in 1923.

War correspondent, and Albuquerquean, Ernie Pyle was killed by Japanese gunfire on the Pacific island of Ie Shima, off Okinawa, on this date in 1945.

Albert Einstein died at age 76 on this date in 1955.

And it was on this date in 1775 that Paul Revere and others rode to warn their countryman that British troops were mobilizing.

Listen, my children, and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.

Continue reading Paul Revere’s Ride by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

. . . of Olivia Hussey. Sixteen when she played Juliet in Franco Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet, she’s 56 today.

. . . of Nick Hornby. He’s 50.

The book was called Fever Pitch (1992), and it came out at a time when football fans were generally looked down upon by the British upper class. But the book became something of a phenomenon in Great Britain, selling hundreds of thousands of copies, making it one of the best-selling books about sport ever published in the English language. Part of what made the book so popular was that it captured the way people can rely on a sports team to give their lives drama and meaning. Hornby wrote, “The natural state of the football fan is bitter disappointment, no matter what the score.”

The Writer’s Almanac

. . . of Liz Phair. She’s 40.

. . . of Jennifer Garner. She’s 35.

J. P. Morgan was born on this date in 1837.

[Morgan] began his career in 1857 as an accountant, and worked for several New York banking firms until he became a partner in Drexel, Morgan and Company in 1871, which was reorganized as J.P. Morgan and Company in 1895. Described as a coldly rational man, Morgan began reorganizing railroads in 1885, becoming a board member and gaining control of large amounts of stock of many of the rail companies he helped restructure. In 1896, Morgan embarked on consolidations in the electric, steel (creating U.S. Steel, the world’s first billion-dollar corporation, in 1901), and agricultural equipment manufacturing industries. By the early 1900s, Morgan was the main force behind the Trusts, controlling virtually all the basic American industries. He then looked to the financial and insurance industries, in which his banking firm also achieved a concentration of control.

The American Experience

Nikita Khrushchev was born on this date in in 1894. Khrushchev was Soviet Premier from 1954-1964. The New York Times has posted its lengthy obituary from 1971. One of the more infamous moments at the United Nations took place when Khrushchev visited there in 1960 and reportedly banged his shoe on the desk in a protest. Or maybe he didn’t. Read what NewMexiKen reported about this incident in 2004.

Thornton Wilder was born on this date in 1897.

As a boy, he lived near a university theater where they performed Greek dramas, and his mother let him participate as a member of the chorus. He never forgot the experience, and he decided then that he would try to write for the theater someday. He got a job at the University of Chicago and began to write a series of experimental one-act plays that used a minimum of scenery and props, and often included an all-knowing character called the Stage Manager. Then, in 1938, he produced the play for which he is best known, Our Town, one of the first major Broadway plays to use almost no stage scenery, so that the audience had to imagine the world in which the characters lived.

Our Town is about the New England village of Grover’s Corners, where the characters George Gibbs and Emily Webb grow up, fall in love at the soda fountain, and get married. When Emily dies in childbirth, she gets to relive the day of her 12th birthday and realizes how little she cherished life while she was alive.

The Writer’s Almanac

William Holden was born on this date in 1918. Holden was nominated three times for the Best Actor Oscar, winning for Stalag 17 in 1954. His other nominations were for Sunset Blvd. and Network. Holden is probably as well known for his portrayal of Hal Carter opposite Kim Novak in Picnic and as the leader of the demolition team intent on destroying Alec Guiness’ Bridge on the River Kwai.

But, most importantly, Emily, official younger daughter of NewMexiKen, was born on this date. Happy birthday Emily!

. . . of Pope Benedict XVI, infallible at 80.

. . . of Bobby Vinton, his roses are still red my love at 72.

. . . of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, 60.

. . . of Bill Belichick, 55.

. . . of Ellen Barkin, 53.

. . . of Peter Billingsley. Ralphie is 35.

Wilbur Wright was born on this date in 1867. He died of typhoid fever in 1912.

Charlie Chaplin was born on this date in 1889.

In a 1995 worldwide survey of film critics, Chaplin was voted the greatest actor in movie history. He was the first, and to date the last, person to control every aspect of the filmmaking process — founding his own studio, United Artists, with Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford and D.W. Griffith, and producing, casting, directing, writing, scoring and editing the movies he starred in. In the first decades of the 20th century, when weekly moviegoing was a national habit, Chaplin more or less invented global recognizability and helped turn an industry into an art. In 1916, his third year in films, his salary of $10,000 a week made him the highest-paid actor — possibly the highest paid person — in the world.

TIME 100

Henry Mancini was born Enrico Nicola Mancini on this date in 1924. He died of pancreatic cancer in 1994.

Mancini won four Oscars and twenty Grammys, the all-time record for a pop artist. For 1961’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s alone, Mancini won five Grammys and two Oscars. Breakfast at Tiffany’s includes the classic “Moon River” (lyrics by Johnny Mercer), arguably one of the finest pop songs of the last 50 years. At last count, there were over 1,000 recordings of it. His other notable songs include “Dear Heart,” “Days of Wine and Roses” (one Oscar, two Grammys), and “Charade,” the last two with lyrics by Mercer. He also had a number one record and won a Grammy for Nino Rota’s “Love Theme From Romeo and Juliet.” Among his other notable film scores are The Pink Panther (three Grammys), Hatari! (one Grammy), Victor/Victoria (an Oscar), Two for the Road, Wait Until Dark, and 10. His television themes include “Peter Gunn” (two Grammys, recorded by many rock artists), “Mr. Lucky” (two Grammys), “Newhart,” “Remington Steele,” and The Thorn Birds television mini-series.

allmusic

Mary Isabel Catherine Bernadette O’Brien was born on this date in 1939. We know her as Dusty Springfield. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in March 1999, just 13 days after she died of breast cancer.

One of the finest pop-soul vocalists ever, Dusty Springfield was blessed with a powerful, smoky voice that ran the emotional gamut from cool sophistication to simmering passion. Over the course of a long, episodic career, she tackled adult pop, Memphis R&B and Motown-style soul, traditional folk and country, and contemporary dance music. She’s been called “one of the five mighty pop divas of the Sixties”-the others being Aretha Franklin, Dionne Warwick, Diana Ross and Martha Reeves-and no less an authority than Berry Gordy credits her for helping the Motown sound take root in the U.K. Moreover, Springfield forcefully asserted herself as an artist and personality at a time when women were generally not given much leeway in the music industry. In 1964, she became Britain’s most popular female vocalist, and her popularity proved durable, as she enjoyed hits in four successive decades.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame